Resolution
by Flipdarkfuture95
Summary: Shepard chose his own option, defying the will of a vastly ancient AI. The war continues, but Shepard has now found a way to combat the Reapers on equal terms. But first, he must rescue his crew, and bring the cycle to a end for good.
1. Chapter 1: Defiance

_The Citadel, location not recognised._

"No."

Shepard clutched his side, barely registering the glowing apparition in front of him. The one trying to stop him from doing what needed to be done. The ghostly display seemed to flicker in slight confusion. He swayed unsteadily.

"There is no other option Organic, there is not enough time for another solution, these are your only options."

Shepard's blue eyes narrowed, partly from pain, mostly from determination. "And I said no. You can't seriously expect me to do what you want. You say that there is no other option, that Synthetics will always rise to destroy Organics. That's not what I saw." His gaze settled on the suffering blue orb behind the AI. "On that little ball, for the first time, Organics and Synthetics are fighting together, against one threat, they are helping each other survive." He started to limp forward, heading down the metal walkway the pale blue ghost occupied.

For the first time, there was alarm in its voice. "No! This is the only way!", Shepard chuckled, groaning a bit as his ribs screamed at him in pain. He withdrew a white and black block from a storage compartment in his leg armour.

"There is always a choice."

"What is that device?"

"A remote control for our little friends out there." He gestured outside, referring to the absolutely gargantuan squid-like forms of the Reapers. He came to a junction, with three paths branching off. One lead straight ahead, ending at a sheer drop at which a brilliant pale green beam was being projected. Another led left, heading up a small flight of steps to a strange alcove, on which two blue black rods rested. The last one went the opposite direction, ending at a platform with a large brown machine resting at its edge. Synthesis, Control, and Destroy.

He grimaced as he climbed the stairs to the control relay, his vision swimming as he felt more and more blood seep out of him. A mechanical scream resonated all around him as the AI sparked and glowed furiously, it appeared in front of him, taking the guise of its oldest child, Harbinger.

"The cycle must be broken, you cannot do this, Synthetics will wipe out the Organics!"

He laughed again, the coppery taste of his blood the only thing he could fully register. "I recall a Reaper by the name of Soverign who wanted the cycle to continue. Guess he didn't get the memo from up top."

"You can't change the cycle, Organic, you will always be destined to fall!"

"Better on our terms rather than on your terms, _Reaper_."

"No, stop!" The AI seemed to be pleading with him, as he neared the control console. He bounced the black and white block in his free hand, thoughts heavy with memories of the dead.

They will be avenged.

His mouth set in a grim line, and jammed the control signal in between the two rods.

Several things happened at once. To his surprise, the AI warped in front of him, nodding sadly as the little kid.

"Our solution was wrong; I hope that yours… is correct." It disappeared, dissipating into the air with a scattering of white particles.

He watched as the calm blue glow from the control relay began to surge, pulsating as the signal transmitted to all Reapers in range.

Wiping excess blood from his mouth he hobbled down the stairs, heading back to the elevator that brought him to the heart of the Citadel. The edges of the tiny platform pulsed with a soft white glow, and descended downwards gracefully. He stared out at the view, paying attention to the Reapers in particular, a Soverign class was ripping through the flank of Sword fleet, destroying countless swaths of ships with burning red lasers scything at anything that moved. It roared mournfully as it went haywire, massive discharges of energy could be seen running through it. A wolf pack of Alliance and Turian frigates screamed towards it, their cannons blazing, sending round after round of slugs into the dying beast. An Alliance Dreadnought brought its main gun to bear at the abomination. Finally with a massive shudder, its frame violently tore apart, the shockwave spinning a careless Alliance cruiser out of control, luckily it regained control, and rejoined its comrades. He noticed that a trio of Reapers had changed course and was bearing down on the Citadel, seemingly gunning straight for him. In his mind he heard a guttural metallic growl. He noticed a small white blur bear down towards the machines, followed by several other grey and black blurs. A Wolfpack.

His armour's tortured coms suite crackled to life. "Commander?" a stern voice came through, barely audible above the static.

He raised his left arm gingerly, wincing as his joints protested loudly. He pushed down on a barely there button on his chest, obscured almost entirely by the melted and frayed lines of metal and ceramics.

"Admiral?"

"Whatever you did it up there seems to be working. The Reapers seemed to have weakend, some of the smaller ones are even tearing themselves apart!"

"Nothing to it sir, it was a...gift, from the Illusive Man."

"Harbinger is headed towards your position Son, you need to get out of there."

"Gladly, Sir."

"What about Anderson? Is he still alive?"

"Barely sir, I'm heading back to him now."

"Alright, but you don't have much time, the Normandy and the Fifth will delay it as long as possible, Hackett out." Shepard released the button, only for another blast of noise to come out of it again.

"Commander? Shepard?"

As quick as he could, he brought his finger back onto the button again.

"Joker! That you?"

"Yes sir, just kicking the Reaper's collective asses!"

"Where's the ground team?"

"Onboard and safe, apart from Garrus and Javik though." he heard a sigh. "No one has seen them, sir."

Shepard hung his head, then nodded once.

"Don't do anything stupid, your my ticket out of here!"

He heard a chuckle. "Will do sir, Normandy out."

A metallic rumble echoed throughout the open interior of the Citadel.

_Shepard_.

He ignored it, focusing on the platform he was standing on minutes earlier.

A body lay near the platform, its vivid blue eyes staring out at the Earth. The Illusive Man. In the end he saved them all.

Shepard limped over to the still form, and closed his eyes. He heard a cough and cursing from behind him.

"Sir?" He turned around, Admiral Anderson was slumped against a console, his eyes barely open. He headed over to him. "Its okay sir, got some medigel."

"Shepard? You still kicking?"

Shepard chuckled, then coughed. "Yeah, hurts to laugh though." He knelt next to his old friend, he gave Anderson a canister with clear foul smelling stuff inside, Anderson grunted in pain as he shifted, injecting the bullet wound with the gel. He sighed as the substance calmed his raging insides, giving him a sense of relief as his vision stopped swimming briefly. Shepard wiggled his index finger, grunting slightly as the small movement hurt like hell. A orange construct of light sputtered into life, flickering unstably as he waved his left arm over Anderson, sending a signal to the gel to activate the nanites. Anderson shifted uncomfortable as his insides began to itch, a sign of the reconstruction going on inside him.

"There any left for you?"

"Nah. You're more important."

Anderson shook his head. But didn't say anything.

With considerable difficulty Shepard sat next to Anderson, his vision beginning to flutter and darken again. Time's up.

"Close call, huh John?"

"Don't know any other, Sir."

Anderson laughed, and sputtered. "Stop making me laugh, Son. Barely together as it is."

Shepard closed his eyes, thoughts going immediately to his friends on Earth. He didn't know what happened to Garrus and Javik after that beam hit. He hoped Joker managed to limp back to nearest repair station. Last time he heard, Normandy took a few hits from Harbinger evacuating the remnants of Hammer.

"Shepard! Stay with me!"

His eyes shot open, registering the look of concern on Anderson's face, he gave him a small smile. "Still here Sir, regrettably."

Anderson began to move, slowly getting up, using the console they rested against as a brace. "Got to get back down there Shepard, lets find a console."

Shepard nodded, feeling the taste of blood in his mouth again. He held out a hand, Shepard nodded, grabbing on weakly. Anderson grunted with the effort, and stopped Shepard from falling down.

Together they hobbled to the console. While Shepard held on to the console as hard as he could, Anderson activated the haptic interface, and was confronted with a almost incomphrehensible array of shapes, bars and graphs. He grimaced, using a sweeping gesture to select a small orange block in the corner of the interface. The block pulsed, and the whole thing shifted into a map of the Citadel control center.

"Huh. We're at the main junction for the Keeper tunnels. Checking for a conduit...here" the map shifted again, showing the the circular room they stood in, with a dot settled on the edge of the room, pulsing slightly. He moved his hand interface glowed green and a wall panel near them shifted into the ceiling, revealing another circular room, this time with a calm glow filling it.

Shepard's head began to loll, his eyes fluttered. Anderson swore and caught him. His grip slipped a bit because of the amount of blood covering Shepard. He ignored the pain as his palms touched the surface of the still smoldering armour. He gritted his teeth and half dragged his friend to the room with the light.

"You'll be alright Shepard."

He set his gaze on the light and entered, immediately feeling as light as a feather and just as solid. The light seemed to grow, eventually being the only thing he could see.

* * *

><p>The acrid smell of burning wires and flesh assaulted Anderson as he found himself standing in front of the conduit beam, he wrinkled his nose in disgust. He limped forward, shifting his weight slightly as he carried his old friend towards a burning red flare in the distance. The silence was almost deafining here, he couldn't sounds of any kind, Reaper or Organic. Out in the distance he saw heavy fighting, with the towering four legged monstrositys that were destroyers lumber through the ruins of London. Flashes of light and biotic pulses betrayed massive firefights taking place. He had to get back to the FOB quickly, and retake command if they were going to bring this battle to a end. Shepard stirred, his eyes opening and closing. The bodies of the dead were everywhere, their faithful Mako's gnarled and broken, as he traversed the graven field, he noticed that Shepard's squad wasn't among the fallen. He continued on, heading past a cluster of bombed out apartment buildings, and back onto the street they made their assault from. He never noticed the glare of the red laser sight on his forehead.<p>

A stern voice rang out across the broken street. "Hold your fire! Its the Admiral. And...Shepard?"

He raised his head, watching as human and turian soldiers came out of hiding. He heard curt orders and replies go back and forth as a medical squad ran out from a storefront to his right, a medic with freckles and blonde hair tied into a bun came to him first.

"Wounded coming in! Tyson, get the stretcher out, get the Commander to shelter ASAP! Powell, assist him!" She directed her team. The black skinned man next to her nodded and went to grab Shepard. Anderson nodded his thanks as Tyson wrapped a gentle arm around the Commander's limp body. He grabbed a dispenser from his belt, injecting the life saving gel into the Commander's left arm. As he headed towards a mostly intact bookstore, he called out to his superior. "Seargeant Lake! His armour's been melted onto his skin! We'll need to find him a transport back to the FOB quickly!", the blonde nodded curtly, directing her attention to the admiral. "Sir, come with me, we'll get you patched up."

Anderson gave her a weak smile. "Thank you Seargeant, but make Shepard the priority, I'm well enough. Could use some medi-gel and morphine though."

"Yessir." Anderson went to move forward but stumbled, grunting pain. Seargeant Lake quickly caught him, supporting him as they made their way to the bookstore, following Tyson.

Anderson raised his head. "Seargeant, are there any other survivors from the run to the conduit?"

"Barely. After the battle died down, we sent a S/R team to scour the area, searching for survivors or..." she paused. "...Corpses. Out of the two companies, barely a quarter of our men made it out of their, and Sir, their wounds are severe."

"What about Vakarian and the Prothean?"

"They made it out Sir. Although almost as soon as they were patched up, they immediately set out into the city, trying to link up with Aralakh company."

"You let them go?" He glanced at her.

"Sir, I wasn't going to argue with a Prothean warrior. I promised to kick their asses if they didn't come back here though."

"How long ago was that Seargeant?"

" 'Bout two four hours Sir."

"Alright." glass shards cracked and shattered as Lake's combat boots crushed them underfoot, they entered the bookstore, picking their way through the blackened remains of old fashioned paper books and modern tablets. After passing a trio of bookshelves standing side-by-side they came out into a large spacious part of the store, probably a reading area for customers and anyone else willing, there was even a coffee machine here. Now it was filled with a dozen cots, she withdrew her arm from Anderson, staying nearby in case he fell, with a sigh he came to rest on the tough surface of the fold-up cot. Anderson glanced at his protege, and Lake got the message. She left him, helping Tyson with setting up a IV drip and health monitor near Shepard. She examined him, watching his face, checking for signs of life or movement. Nothing. She checked his pulse, it was steady, but very faint. Not good. She sighed, Tyson gave her a quick I-got-this smile, she returned the gesture and slipped away, checking on her other patients.

After patching up a turian scout the old fashioned way, with some gauze and disinfectant, she came back to the Admiral's bed, hoping to ask him how Shepard got like that. Or she would have, if he wasn't fast asleep and practically drooling into the pillow. She smiled inwardly, realizing just how many days that Anderson went with almost no sleep at all. Too busy coordinating a world wide resistance movement.

She left his side, asking a dirt streaked recruit to keep an eye on him, and to call Tyson over if there was trouble. She sighed, and headed to a small corner of the book lounge, housing a single cot walled off by a thin curtain. She climbed onto it, releasing a deep breath as her head the tough material of the pillow. Within minutes she was dead to the world.

* * *

><p>Even though Javik was the last of his people and their embodiment of vengeance, he could still chuckle to himself as he watched another Reaper destroyer fall to his handiwork. The massive quadraped loosed a mechanical wail, forcing a few of the Human soldiers near him to cover their ears in agony. Javik bared his teeth against the noise, and depressed the button on the detonator. The ruins the Reaper was now trapped in began to wink with many red lights, coalescing into a brilliant white flash as all of the 5th platoon's supply of RDX nullifiers went off at once, the light from the explosion reached them, painting the ruined neighborhood in a sharp white glow, the visors on their helmets struggled to keep up with the output. Javik merely blinked his four orange eyes, shaking his head slightly. The soldiers cheered, some raising their guns to the sky as the Reaper wailed once more, and fell silent, crushing a whole company's worth of Husks under it, a bonus. He barked a order to the twenty remaining members of 5th platoon.<p>

"Soldiers! We must move forward, we cannot delay!"

The cheering died down, replaced by curt nods and shouted orders. He placed his particle rifle onto its holster, taking out his sidearm as he entered the dark reaches of a bombed out school. 5th Platoon followed, eyes focused and mouths grim as they silently followed the Prothean. He heard a chorus of clicking as the Human and Turians switched their nightvision on. Javik didn't need any of that, his pupils merely dilated in response to the suffocating darkness, his orange eyes being almost a solid black ten seconds later. He slowed as he came to a wide gap where the floor had broken away, cutting of easy access to the other half of the wrecked top floor. He held up a closed hand, signalling for a full stop. Two turians in light armour, Scouts, went to him. He motioned for them to jump across first, to scout the floor for the whole ragtag group.

They both nodded, stowing their shotguns on their hips as they leapt across, one after the other. A second later, Javik landed behind them with a soft thud, keeping a solid grip on his Carnifex. He blinked twice, and walked forwards, heading for a broken door that sputtered with electrical discharge. He craned his head, spying a hole in the wall that could get him into the room. A familiar and unwelcome sight greeted him, hunched over the corpse of...something, was a Asari, wrenched and elongated. It slowly turned its head, staring at him with cold blue discs of light. It opened its mouth farther then the Asari bone structure should allow, letting loose a nerve wracking scream, it wreathed itself in blue energy, suddenly appearing right in front of him, it raised a clawed hand, and slashed at him. Javik growled, ducking under the cleave with unnatural speed. In a well practiced motion he slid his knife out of a sheath hidden in his armour's pauldron, and sliced upwards, cutting off the claws of the Banshee. It howled once more, and sliced downwards with its remaining claws, he rolled forwards under its legs, using its size against it. He twisted, bracing a foot against the ground as he thrusted upwards, the knifes edge glowing a brilliant orange. It rended its way into the Banshee's stomach, cutting through circuitry and organic muscle as it found its target. With a spark, the central processor installed by Huskification was cleaved in two. The once-asari screamed and went into a berserk death rage, sweeping its claws around it at impossible speed, he could barely follow the path of destruction its passage wrought. Finally with a blood curdling scream it crumpled to the ground, leaking a glowing blue liquid from its many orifices. Javik sheathed his knife, trying not to look at its young victim as he went back through the hole.

He straightened, rolling his shoulders and brushing some dust off of his ornate armour. The two scouts stared at him in awe.

"Sir, are you alright?" The turian on the left said in a small voice.

"I am fine, I had to do that all the time in my cycle."

He heard muttering and whispers over the other side, a strange word was being repeated amongst the soldiers there. Badass.

He would look up the meaning of that word later he decided.

"Anything to report?"

"Nothing sir, the whole building is empty, apart from that Banshee."

Javik nodded, the shorter of the two scouts nodded and headed over to the gap, signalling for the rest of them to cross. The larger and taller scout kept a firm grip on his shotgun, and headed down a stairwell nearby. He followed closely, finger resting on the trigger at all times. His boots made a soft thud as he stepped down the stairwell cautiously. The stairwell connected to a short hall, its walls crammed with lockers, most of them were open, revealing their contents to the wrecked world. Abandoned books spilled out of them, and on those books were the personal possesions of each locker's owner. One in particurlarly seemed to hold items of religous significance, as it was adorned with pink crate paper and wilted flowers that hadn't been watered. A book with a soft pink cover seemed to be the focal point of the display. Javik left the locker alone, not wanting to intrude on a sacred altar of the Humans.

At the end of the hallway was a pair of doors, painted with a dizzying display of reds, blues and greens. Clearly Humans had a firm grasp of abstract art. The Turian scout took up position next to the door, waiting for Javiks signal. Javik shook his head, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive first. A minute later three Human soldiers came down the stairs, one was equipped with a katana shotgun, with a massive black blade attached to the undergrip. The other two wielded avenger riflers, with bayonets as well. Without a word they filed past him, taking up positions near the door. Javik nodded, prompting the Turian to push lightly on the door, his shotgun leading the way. Nothing seemed to tear his head off as he trudged into the area beyond the door. The others followed, streaming into the area behind him and veering left out of Javik's sight.

Javik kept his sidearm ready, and headed through the doors, a large rectangular room, illuminated with a dangerously flickering fluorescent light, most of its floor space was filled with long tables and chairs. And on the far side of the room, was a metal counter that ran the length of the room, rails were mounted on its surface. The area behind the counter was sparse and tidy, dust caked everything though. A eating area for the young of the Humans. Javik realized where he was. A school.

One of the senior human soldiers walked over to him, he saw behind his visor that he had green eyes, and a very strange strip of thick 'hair'. Javik decided that he didn't want to know the reason why humans named their fur. He took off his helmet, running a gloved hand through thin graying hair.

"Sir, the men are tired, we should spend the night here, link up with the Lizards tommorow."

Javik himself felt fine. But as he looked around the room, noticing the body language of the assorted soldiers, how loosely their weapons were held, and unsteadily they held themselves. He nodded his acceptance. The seargeant turned to tend to the troops, when he reached his hand to his shoulder.

"Seargeant, I will take first patrol." he stated simply.

He heard the barest of sighs from the Seargeant. "Alright, you need any backup-" he held up his handheld. "You know who to call."

Javik simply nodded, he took his rifle out, cradling it in his arms, he silently walked out of the room, into the dark corridors beyond.

He crept forward methodically, sweeping the dark corridor with his particle rifle, its firing chamber glowed a soft, pale green, throwing a soft light over the enclosed space. He passed a junction, where another corridor cut through his. Soon enough the hallway ended at at a pair of doors, broken and strewn across a pile of rubble where part of the building had collapsed. Javik turned and walked down the other corridor, keeping a vigilant gaze on the dark ahead of him. The corridor changed direction, going a sharp left once more, leading to another segment with a door set in the middle of both its walls.

The crash of a object being knocked to the ground alerted him, his gaze settled on the door on the left wall. He went over to the door, shuffling into a breach position to the left of its framework. He picked up the telltale signs of movement within, and quiet sobbing. His eyes narrowed suspicously. He craned his head to see into the room, and quickly whipped it back.

The room was filled with plastic single person tables, most of them overturned and tumbled all over the place, fragments of brightly coloured tablets littered the floor, pens and pencils were scattered everywhere, coloured grey from the dust, a pen, its tip changing hue every second, lay abandoned on a sturdy, squat desk at the front of the room, right across from the door he was hidden behind. A grey skeletal figure sat slumped in the chair behind it, its eyes glowing with a ghostly blue light, blue lines of active ciruitry criss-crossed its ashen skin, ending at its hands and feet. Javik scowled, and readied his knife, calculating a method of approach in dealing with it quietly. His focus was interrupted when the husk slowly swung its gaze towards a corner of the classroom, host to a pile of rubble which partially blocked a storage closet. A sniffing sound came from within, the husk screeched, and clumsily tumbled over the desk as it sighted its prey. Javik heard sobbing from the little space as the Husk drew out of his view. He rounded the corner,the edge of his knife vibrating slightly as a warm glow grew over it. The Husk, bestial in nature, was completely focused on the small storage compartment and the pitiful creature within.

He flipped the knife's blade outwards, preparing for a quick slash across its central circuit lane. The sobbing intensified into crying as the Husk roared, going in for the kill. Javik growled and slashed downwards. the blade carving a sparking gash down the creature's back, severing the thick blue cable in place of its spine. The Husk loosed a mechanical cry, and twisted over, twitching horribly as it crashed to the ground, the lights in its eyes went out.

Javik made a satisfying _hmph_ sound, smoothly sliding the knife back into its sheath. He turned to scan the room for any traps, when a small weight barrelled into his legs. His eyes widened for a moment, expecting a surprise attack, but only heard a soft little voice.

"Thank you."

He craned his neck, looking down at a human child, its face glistening with wetness. small grey eyes looked up at him, with equal parts relief and uncertainty, with a bit of fear thrown in. He held his arms loosely at his sides, unsure of what to do. Reassurance sounded neccessary.

"You are safe, child." the little human quickly withdrew her arms from his leg, taking a step back.

"Ar-are you a Turian? Like Tius?" the little human fidgeted nervously, looking around the dark space, except for where the husk lay.

Javik made a annoyed noise in his throat. "I am not." the child looked away. He sighed. "Is Tius your friend?"

The child seemed to relax a little, a ghost of a smile hinting at her small lips. "My best friend, we played together all the time.", her eyes narrowed as she focused on him. "Are you a Drell?"

Javik resisted the pathological urge to roll his eyes. "No"

"Asari?"

"N-"

"Salarian?"

"Agai-"

"Elcor?"

Javik made a growling noise in his throat, causing the girl to jump a little. "I am Prothean."

Silence descended between them, the girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief and confusion. Then smiled. "Okay!"

Javik blinked twice. "Your reaction is unusual. Others I have met have either been in disbelief, or _extreme_ excitement."

He was desperate for another topic. "What is your name?"

"Sarah."

"Sarah. What a strange name." he mused. He felt immediately uncomfortable when she glared at him in fury.

"Its a great name! I bet yours sounds worse!"

Javik fell for the trap. "I am Javik, embodiment of vengeance and the last voice of my people!"

Sarah wasn't impressed. "Hmph. Whatever."

The Prothean warrior whipped his head up, orange eyes alert. Something was moving in the corridors beyond. He had to get her back to the cafeteria.

"We must go." he grabbed her hand and headed towards the door, Sarah stumbled, quickly regaining her balance as she worked to match his pace.

He leant out of the doorway, looking left and right before going back into the wrecked corridor. Sarah held onto his hand tightly, nervously eyeing every shadow. Cautiously he stepped out, leaving the room behind with Sarah in tow. At the corner he drew his pistol, as he turned to Sarah he held a finger to his lips. She nodded, unable to repress a squeak of fear. Pistol first he rounded the corner, the whispers of movement almost deafening in the dead hallway. He felt the girl's grip on his leg tighten as they came to the junction. Javik looked around the corner, noticing that the collapsed entrance was being disturbed, by non-organic hands. The cafetaria was oddly silent, he couldn't hear any movement or sounds of life from within. He reaffirmed his grip on Sarah's hand, and guided them to the double doors. He knocked on the door with his pistol, and was presented with the barrel of a assault rifle. The owner of the weapon moved into view, immediately the weapon was lowered.

"Sir, we have a whole company of Reapers about to swarm into here. You got back just in time-"

He noticed the small hand wrapped around one of Javik's thick fingers. Sarah came into view.

"Who's that Sir?"

"A little girl I found in one of the classrooms. Her name is Sarah."

The Sergeant cursed very quietly. "Alright I'll get someone to take her upstairs, we'll need you down here sir."

"Agreed."

He walked past the sergeant, stopping at a table that was serving a purpose as cover. He turned to the little girl.

"Go and wait in the stairwell, it isn't safe to stay in this room."

"But- why are you staying?"

"To make it safe. Now go."

One of the turian scouts came over to them. "Sir, my squad has been assigned for rearguard, we'll be covering the second floor, she's welcome to stick with us. Don't let any of the bastards through."

Javik nodded. "Acknowledged, lieutenant."

Reluctantly Sarah let go of his hand, and took the extended hand of the lieutenant, he watched them as they made their way up the stairs. He headed back to the Sergeant. He took his particle rifle, depressing a panel on the side to activate it. He took a position behind an overturned table near the sergeant.

Javik glanced at the sergeant. "Be ready."

Soldiers all over the room had their gaze fixed at the door, some of them swallowing nervously, others merely sighing, the turians were wholly proffesional, coordinating movements and orders for the men in the room.

A massive roar shook the cafetaria, filling the hearts of every soldier with dread. Javik merely scowled, keeping his finger on the trigger, and keeping a count of his grenades.

"Kranov! That thing set up yet?" the sergeant was directing his question at a large human soldier.

"Almost, sergeant. Just hooking up the thermal sinks. Would not want explosion, _da?_"

"Make it quick, company's coming."

The hulking trooper continued setting up a massive rifle on one of the overturned tables, it was affixed to the table's edge with a clamp. It looked like a bulky version of the Phaeston, with sharp angular lines making up its shape. He slid back a compartment on the top of the rifle, bending down, he grabbed a thin slab of grey metal, slipped it into the chamber, closed the compartment and slapped the gun to make sure it wouldn't jam. Although it was mostly a automated process, and the gun _did _have a VI handling most of the maintenance, he did it mostly as a force of habit. With a flick of a switch the gun made a barely audible hum, as its mass effect core came online. He crouched behind it, pressing the stock into his shoulder as he stared down the sights.

Another roar, this time much closer. door broke off its hinges as a massive metal claw smashed through it, a hulking behemoth lumbered through, its turian head staring and roaring at the assortment of soldiers.

The sergeant chucked a small disc with a red light on it, it flew towards the brute, lodging itself in its belly, with a beep it detonated, sending a billowing firestorm through the behemoth's innards, flash frying everything of the creature that was flesh and bone. It screamed, rivulets of dust fell from the ceiling as it charged, shattering chairs and tables under its wake. Everyone opened up, sending a withering storm of rounds into the reaper construct, it snarled as its insides caught fire, as its circuits sparked and fizzed out, and as patches of its grey skin froze almost instantaneously. The skin shattered violently, sending thousands of frozen spikes throughout its burning interior. It swung its massive claw down, the sergeant cursed and rolled out of its shadow. He prepped another disc, slipping it into the brute's ribcage.

Another detonation, and the creature fell over with a dying scream, its twisted burning husk providing some extra cover for the sergeant. Turian husks poured through the gap after it, only to have be vaporised into oblivion by a pale green lance of light swept across their ranks.

Javik barked an order. "Grenades!".

Several discs and balls were thrown into the gap among the horde of creatures waiting beyond. Roars and shrieks were heard as they detonated.

"Cover, everyone!" the sergeant yelled, he ducked his head behind the table, wincing at the amount of heat put out by the fireball, smoke filled the burnt aperture, hampering their view of the halls beyond. Silence swept over them for a few seconds, before the air rang again with the howls and wails of the husks.

"Here they come again! Check your ammo!"

The defensive line waited, some of them nervously swallowing as they stared at the blackened gap in front of them. A sizzling bolt of dark red lanced through, burning through the head of an unfortunate rifleman, he tipped backwards, a burning red hole visible in between his brown eyes.

"Stomper!"

Javik responded with a glowing blue grenade, with expert arm he threw it through the smoldering fissure, it bounced down the dark hall towards the source of the round, detonating into a iridescent sphere of biotic energy. Silence responded back. A heavy thud was heard, one after another. A spherical mass effect field parted the smoke cloud, revealing a massive four legged monstrosity in its center. It seemed to go up for forever, nearly touching the top of the gap with its massive back. What was a leathery hide was completely covered in a dark metal carapace, mounted on its back was a twin barrelled cannon, the barrels unsettingly resembled a pair of dessicated human arms, widened and elongated to form a crude fleshy shell for the metal barrel. It had no face, merely a smaller version of its metal carapace, two slits opened, revealing a pair of small, but ghastly blue discs. A rumble like thunder went through its frame, sending a very obvious signal.

"Cover!" the sergeant screamed.

Javik growled and stood up, unloading a barrage of burning energy into the flank of the massive beast. It roared, shaking small fragments from the cracked roof as its armour glowed white from the intense blaze of energy. As it turned to face the puny warrior, its twin cannon swung towards him, with a wet crunch of flesh being shifted and moved in impossible ways the barrels widened, their innards glowing with a baneful red light.

Javik merely snorted, he focused inwardly, shaping the very core of his being into a unbreakable sphere of iron will. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, calmy watching a massive storm of red bolts moving towards him at a snails pace. He shifted to the side, ripping off his whole belt of grenades. He ran his finger over the spheres, leaving a trail of slowly blinking red lights, he threw the belt under the belly of the hulking platform. He shook his head as reality began to fasten, and dived backwards, back behind his wreck of a table.

Time moved normally again, the volley of red slammed into the wall, absoluting pulverising the old concrete, shattering that section of the wall. Javik roared a warning at the other soldiers.

"Get down!"

They obliged, disappearing behind whatever cover they could find, a fair few managed to scramble into the kitchen area, taking refuge behind the sturdy metal counters and tables. Another volley of red was flung out, catching a unlucky soldier in the side as he made a mad dash for the kitchen. Most of his chest was ripped from him, flinging great gouts of blood and viscera into the air. He crumpled to the floor with a deathly sigh.

Javik glowed with a pale green light as he focused his energy on the Elcor husk. The green light roiled into a brilliant sphere in his hands, he splayed his hands, weaving a sphere of green energy around the doomed beast. His vision began to swim with the effort as the giant began to smash against the walls of the field, each impact causing the sphere to flare for a brief second. With a massive shout he held on, pouring more strength into the sphere as a miniature sun took shape in the shield. His vision was beginning to fail as the strain got to him. He fell to one knee, hands still splayed, glowing furiously with a energy like fire. The fireball raged within the green, until finally it began to die away.

The room was quiet as Javik struggled to keep upright, he fell backwards, throwing out a arm, grabbing the edge of a table with a weak grip. For the first time in weeks, he fell into the world of slumber. Two soldiers broke cover, running to pull the Prothean upstairs, currently the safest area.

"Get him up there, hurry up! We got husks to kill!"

A series of booms prompted a renewed focus on the gap. Almost like a pattern, the booms continued, punctuated by the screams of dead machines, the wailing growl of a brute, and the unmistakable death screech of a banshee. The halls outside rang with an eerie silence.

Footsteps were heard, coming closer and closer to the other side of the gap. A turian voice spoke.

"Anyone alive in there?"

while the question seemed to be directed at the beleagured occupants of the room, a gruff -definitely Krogan- voice answered him.

"Good job, Garrus, maybe I should let you handle breaching ops more often."

The other voice seemed to ignore this jibe.

The Sergeant spoke up first.

"I'm Sergeant Krieg, 5th Company Rifles. I'm in charge here."

"Sergeant, we only have twenty five heat sigs on scope here. Are you all thats left?"

"Yes, me and nineteen others are all thats left of the company. We also have a Turian scout squad with us. Scout captain Arius is their CO." he shook his head. "Would have been far less of us if the Prothean hadn't showed."

The voice on the other side sounded surprised. "Prothean? Hold on Sergeant we're coming in."

A turian walked through, followed by a towering Krogan.

Wrex looked around the room. With a characteristic bluntness he asked a simple question.

"Anybody got anything to eat?"

* * *

><p>AN

So there it is, the glorious beginning of this fanfic. Like many others, I was incredibly dissapointed when I saw the endings. So I decided I'd rectify that with a fanfic that would continue the war with the Reapers past Earth. I will be on this almost daily, so expect a new chapter around the beginning of each month, possibly more.

Please review, please criticize.


	2. Chapter 2: Holding The Line

Chapter 2: Holding The Line

* * *

><p><em>Westminster Borough, London. December 12th, 2186.<em>

"Tali! Marauder near the red car!"

The Quarian ducked behind a piece of rubble as a line of shots passed above her. She responded with a shotgun blast, obliterating the offending Turian husk with a massive steel slug. Kneeling behind a overturned red bus to her right was a Asari, wearing white and blue combat armour, her hands flared with blue energy as she flung a pair of cannibals into the air, sending them slamming into a wall, she could hear the snaps and crackles of bones and broken circuits from here. A shrill scream pierced the air as a Banshee came into view, a group of Asari Huntresses retreated from their position, firing their rifles at the beast, it barely flinched as its barriers came down. It screamed once more, ribbons of energy covered it as it teleported towards the Commandos.

Liara cursed and flung a grenade into the air. It reached the apex of its acceleration and began to fell, only to be covered in a blue field. Liara flung her arm forwards, throwing the grenade at the Banshee's side with a biotic field. It impacted with a crunch, lodging into the husks side. The creature screamed as it caught one of the Asari soldiers in a choke hold, it lifted her up by the neck, and flexed its other arm, about to run her through with three massive claws. The blue skinned alien noticed the grenade lodged in its side, and glowed blue, placing her palms on the banshee she used a biotic field to push herself away from the creature. It loosed a piercing cry as the grenade exploded, turning half of it into nothing but ash, the other half fell to the ground in a heap.

"Good throw, Doc!" James called out; he was hunkered down behind the two of them, a park bench as his cover. He popped his rifle out, sending a few high calibre shots into a group of Marauders. His gun jammed, and James ducked back down.

"Piece of crap Saber! Fucking work for once!" He noticed that a pair of Brutes were headed towards them.

"James! Need some fire put out on those Brutes!" Ash swore and ducked her head behind a wrecked car, flinging a red hot thermal clip out of her phaeston.

"I noticed!" He grabbed a disc from his belt, jamming his thumb down on the trigger on top. He flung it at the two giants using a discus throw. It spun towards them with frightening speed. As it passed in-between the two beasts, Vega detonated the explosive. A massive fireball was released; flash frying the organic parts of the two Brutes, leaving only two metallic frames. A massive bolt whipped past James, slamming into the side of the upturned truck behind him, knocking it over. James swore.

"What the hell is that!"

A massively built creature charged onto the street, bowling over a Brute standing in its way. Its face was the stuff of nightmares, its 'mouth' was a small black maw, surrounded by layers and layers of sharp spikes, above that were its eyes, two glowing discs of fury. At the end of its huge arms, a massive gun barrel whirred and clicked, glowing malevolently with a pale blue light.

Liara spoke up first. "Please tell me that isn't a Yahg husk?"

The Yahg husk roared and its cannons fired, sending a red bolt at the Asari. She yelped and put up a biotic field, the round smacked against the field, almost ripping straight through. The strength drained away from Liara as she let the field disappear, gasping for air she ducked back behind cover. Vega popped up, squeezing off a incendiary round at the beast. It punched through its arms, leaving a massive hole. The husk didn't seem to notice as it continued its charge, flattening a few human husks in its rage.

Ash fired a burst of cryo rounds at its legs, its right leg took the brunt of the assault, icing over and stiffening as the rounds payload did its work. The beast launched another cannon round, sending it towards the spectre. She dove away from her cover as it speared through it, tearing apart the wrecked car. Ash scrambled, running into the store front behind the team. She unhooked a grenade from her belt, priming it, and chucked it at the husk. It barely flinched as the grenade exploded underneath it.

"Kirrahe! Put a round through this things head!"

"On it Lieutenant!"

The massive barrel of a black widow anti material rifle was visible on the second floor of the store. The Salarian operator behind it fired, stepping back a bit as the recoil hit him. The massive slug spun towards the squat head of the creature. With a crunch it hit, tearing off half of its face in the process. For the first time, the Yahg creature roared in pain, it fell back onto a wrecked vehicle, writhing. With a growl it stood back up, intent on turning them into a smear on the ground.

A orange combat drone floated out from behind a piece of rubble, it flung bolts of electricity at the Yahg, at such an intensity that the creatures armour was melted to its skin. Smoking and wounded, the beast continued charging, going for the drone. The drone bobbed out of the way as it ran towards the piece of rubble.

"Sparks!" James called out to Tali.

Tali was silent, she nodded once and quickly dove out of cover, a geth plasma shotgun in her hands. She fired twice, sending two gobs of burning plasma into the beasts chest. It roared as the balls of energy burned through its skin and metal. Dropping the synthetic weapon, Tali dived as the brute swiped at her with one of its cannons. She ducked under the weapon, sliding her knife from its holster as she crouched and ran under its legs. She thumbed a button on the knife, the edge and tip of the blade glowed a bright orange as it was superheated from within. She slashed upwards, carving a massive wound into the creatures crotch. The edges of the wound glowed a molten orange as she rolled to avoid the creatures blows. She flicked her wrist, sending the knife into one of the creature's eyes.

The rest of the husks tried to aim at her, but Liara and Ash distracted them with a grenade round and a singularity. A explosion of heat incinerated two Marauders, leaving them as blackened corpses and dying circuitry. A Ravager squealed as it was lifted into the dust filled air by Liara, she clenched her fist and threw it forwards, propelling the Rachni husk into a brute twenty metres behind it. The creature's sacs ruptured from the impact, releasing a swarm of robotic insects all over the Brute's body. The hybrid roared as the little things bit into it, and burrowed into its internals. It fell over with a sigh, its corpse twitching slightly as the metal bugs moved within.

"All clear Ash?"

"For now!"

The Yahg raged as Tali leapt at it, with enough strength that it knocked the weakened giant over. As the beast bucked and rolled, Tali held onto the knife handle. With a squelch she pulled it out, she stabbed the beast in the side of the head repeatedly, trying to finish it off. Finally, she hit the main processor dead on, killing it instantly. Its body went limp, and Tali rolled off of it, exhausted and tired. She grabbed her shotgun and went to James's position.

"Impressive Sparks, where'd you learn those moves?"

She eyed him wearily through her mask. "You don't live long on pilgrimage if you can't use a knife. A lot of practice and many close calls."

Kirrahe's voice came through on everyone's comms. "We're clear, no reaper signatures showing up on scope. Come back to the store, we need to work out a plan."

She shrugged and got up, walking unsteadily into the dimly lit store. James was by her side as they passed in-between the shelves of ruined boxes and tv sets. Ruined scraps of paper littered the floor, along with ripped pages of old style magazines and broken tablet frames. Behind them Liara and Ash entered, talking quietly. Liara was limping slightly and covered in sweat, while Ash sported a massive bruise on her left cheek. James wasn't doing much better, numerous scrapes and cuts, a bruised trigger finger, and a mild concussion from when a Banshee had thrown him the full length of a Mako garage two blocks back. His head was still spinning from that. They were all being worn down, slowly, but definitely.

Ash rubbed her bruise gingerly. "Damn that hurt like hell."

"Liara glanced at her. "Ash, that was pretty impressive. What you did back there. Thank you."

"I'm not going to let a Brute take you down, makes me look bad."

That got a chuckle out of her. "Well then, maybe I should have left you to deal with those marauders by yourself."

"I could have taken them."

"Uh huh."

"How's your leg?"

"Feels like I stuck it in front of a freight train."

Ash laughed, accidentally rousing a few of the sleeping soldiers in the building. " I know that feeling."

"We haven't done this much have we?"

"What's that?"

"Talking."

That caught her off-guard. "I was stupid back on the SR-1, was still trying to prove myself by being the bigger human, comes from being a military kid."

Liara laughed again. "I wasn't much better; I barely talked to anyone, except the commander. I was afraid I'd say something horrible. Comes from being a...shut-in."

"You did say a few good ones."

"Ha ha."

"Come on, the others have beaten us to Kirrahe."

* * *

><p>"We're cut off from the rest of hammer. It looks grim, I'll tell you that much."<p>

"No hope of breaking through their flank Major?"

"None, unless you want to take on a full company of Brutes."

"I like those odds."

"I don't, Lieutenant Vega, we just don't have the firepower to break through that approach."

"Let's recap Major. What are we trying to do?"

Kirrahe sighed; and flicked the hologram back to the start. It settled on a massive Reaper, nestled in the ruins of Westminster palace. Big ben was still standing however. Swarms of red dots were visible in the ruined buildings around the clock tower. A noticeably smaller scattering of blue dots were visible throughout the projection, most of them surrounded by red dots.

"Our objective is to get to that Reaper, get a team inside and takeover its main gun controls, with that we can secure the airspace over at least half of the city."

"How are we going to do that?"

"I was told that your cyber warfare specialist could assist with that, Admiral 'Zorah."

"She can."

"Judging by enemy composition and force layout, the only area we can approach from is Lexington Boulevard, two blocks from our current location." He dragged his slender finger across the projection, zooming on the cracked ruins of a bridge running across the river Thames.

"From there, we will escape the majority of their ground forces around the tower by going under the Westminster Bridge. Our goal is a service access tunnel that connects to the London metro, and to our entrance into the grounds, Westminster station."

"So that's our way in then." James decided. Kirrahe nodded his assent.

"Way I see it we'll operate as one squad, and fight our way to the Reaper's legs. Then we set the charges, toppling it over. Next we radio the Normandy to swoop in, getting your specialist into range to hack into the Reaper's matrix."

"It's risky, but then again everything we've done is." Liara noted.

"Another thing, a squad of Geth Primes have dropped down in the sector nearby, we should probably link up with them first, and then make our move."

Ash cracked her knuckles. "Let's do it. Clip check?"

"Got enough for around 500 rounds, Ash. My biotics will back me up as well."

"James?"

"40. I'll hang back; plug any son of a bitch with what I can."

"Tali?"

"60. I checked where our route runs through, there's a firearm store along the way, mostly antiques but it'll do."

"Kirrahe?"

"100 rounds and 20 for my sidearm. If need demands it, I have a backup weapon."

"Good. Any forces we can link up with along the way?"

"One of my fire teams is in the area. The Halliburton apartment complex. Headed by Captain Padok Wiks."

Liara recognised that name from somewhere. "I know him; he was the project head at the STG facility where we extracted Eve from."

Kirrahe nodded. "Yes, he's a good leader." He paused. "Bit of a cloaca though."

Ash nodded. "Alright, we have our objective and our route. We'll spend the night here, then at 0500, we head out. Rest up everyone."

* * *

><p>With a smooth motion, she popped open a curved panel, reveaking a pulsing blue core surrounded by circuitry. After a few minutes of intense staring, Tali got a faint idea of how to tweak the geth weapon. Her omnitool sparked as she jammed it into the breach, resulting in the core changing from a pale blue to a brilliant yellow.<p>

That was unexpected. She shrugged to herself, and continued tweaking, her goal to get a faster velocity from the plasma gobs.

Outside the sky was completely black, with the smoke and dust clouds being lit up periodically by explosions and carnage, both above and below. The street was silent as the lonely wind howled. Liara was hunched over a precariously intact desk, groaning under the weight of clip boxes and medical kits. Her SMG, shaped like an antique P-90, was perched on the edge of the table, by her right hand. Her head slipped from her hand as she began to nod off again.

Listening to the snoring of a human by the name of Ozlov was making _her _sleepy.

She focused on the maps and notes in front of her, trying to organize a plan for tommorow.

A pack of rations fell down in front of her, giving her a start.

"Hungry, doc?"

Now that she was facing a pile of barely digestable nutrient blocks, she realized that she was starving.

"Oh. Thank you James."

"Don't worry about it."

"I wasn't going to-" she caught herself. "Right, another human saying."

James grinned. "Bingo." he noticed her work. "How's the planning going?"

She shrugged as she rubbed her eyes. "Well, I've just recieved a report from Kirrahe and the scout squad. We'll have to make a minor detour to avoid a few Elcor and Yahg husks in the area. Oh and we've also spotted another distress beacon nearby, and another concentration camp has been purged. Not only that, but Reaper forces have doubled in size sinc-"

"Doc, you're worryin-"

"I thought the crucible was supposed to end this, why didn't it!"

her eyes were wet as she turned to look at him.

James fell silent, his eyes looking at the floor. "I don't know. You'll have ask the commander when he gets back. Can't blame yourself doc."

"I was the one who found those blueprints! I actually thought that the crucible would destroy the Reapers in one fell swoop!" she hung her head. "People are dying all over the galaxy because my weapon didn't work. And now shepard is among the dead."

James couldn't believe his ears. "Doc, what are you saying? You couldn't have possibly known what that thing would do, none of us did. But it was a shot, and we took it. Don't beat yourself up over it. Its not your fault."

Liara didn't answer, merely nodding stiffly. "At least you believe that, James."

She walked off in the direction of the bunks, taking the datapads with her, she stopped, her head still hanging low. She grabbed a few of the nutrient blocks, not even looking at James.

He sighed despondently, completely clueless about how to bring Liara out of her slump, and now she is in a even worse one because of him. Well done Vega. He shook his thoughts away, moving over to his bunk. He fell onto the rough material, staring glumly at the bottom of the top matress as he closed his eyes. He pushed his rebelling thoughts away, focusing on multitudes, weapon counts, ammo lists, debriefings, and the fact that they were commiting to an op that most likely was a one way ticket to _infierno_. But this was an important one, the only way they could get a flight of wolf packs into the airspace; including the Normandy.

Soon enough he fell into a sleep, giving his body the chance to catch up in its battered state. His fears gave rise to nightmares, his squadmates dying in the ruins of London, the civilians he left behind back on Fehl Prime, his uncle dead as a husk devoured his remains. This went on throughout the stormy night.

* * *

><p>"She's taking this hard isn't she?"<p>

Ash leant against Tali's workbench, her arms folded as she stifled a yawn.

Tali didn't even look up as she fiddled with the geth shotgun. "We all are."

"Yeah."

"I'm worried about them, even Javik."

"Tali, they'll kick their asses, take their names, and remind them of what organics can do. Still. I'm worried too."

"But Liara's right, about the crucible. It didn't seem to do anything at all."

Ash was silent.

"I think I need to keep working on this." Tali kept modifying the gun, even though Ash knew that it was as powerful as it was going to get.

"Get some sleep Tali."

"I can't. Nerves I guess."

"Would help if it was a order?"

Tali laughed quietly. "Maybe. I think I will. This gun would probably blow up if I fiddled with it further."

"Make sure to throw it at the enemy first."

"Will do. Good night, Ash."

Tali stretched and left the lieutenant commander, heading around the wall to a small curtained area, containing her cot and a rucksack for her tools. She sighed as she dropped onto the taut canvas, shutting off her suits lights as she almost immediately drifted into a deep sleep. The purple glow of her faceplate dimmed away, leaving a dark grey window, through which the sharp tip of a light purple nose could be seen.

* * *

><p><em>The Millenium Dome, Royal Borough of Greenwich. December 13th, 2186.<em>

A big one. 3'oclock, south of the burning bus. A shot rings out, and the brute falls over, its massive claw crushing a husk next to it as it crashes to the earth. The wind howls as the early morning rises. Reapers dominate the skyline of London, their massive legs moving ponderously as they annihilate entire companys and platoons. In the eastern boroughs, a Reaper falls, its chassis broken and blown open, wrapped in fire, it emits a wailing cry as it falls, and the squadron of Turian flyers begin the search for more prey.

According to the reports from the people inside the dome, they were doing a whole sight better then before.

Garrus shook his thoughts away, replacing them with a efficient calm. He peered through the scope once more sighting yet another damn Banshee, 500 metres south, underneath the shadow of the 12'oclock pylon. He takes the recoil in his shoulder, barely moving with the force of the shot. It hits the Asari husk in the head, right between its optics. It falls, screaming as blue energy roils under its skin, it finds a way out, through the massive hole in its head. The group of cannibals and marauders near its dead form are incinerated by the raw energy, falling dead within seconds.

Garrus smiled to himself at that one. He remembered accomplishing a similar feat on Omega, his team was tracking a Salarian smuggler by the name of Dr. Morl. They found his hideout in the sewer works of the Lyngol district, one of the shittier ones. They completed their mission and were about to head back to base when an eclipse death squad dropped into the area. Two YMIR mechs, five biotic assassins. He told his team to retreat as he dealt with the mercs. When he got back to base, he told the team he only used two bullets.

He rolled his neck, stretching the muscles so as to keep them from stiffening. He cradled the massive black rifle in his lap as he sat at the top of the yellow pylon. His radio hissed and sparked as it recieved a audio message.

"Sir, coast is clear, nice job, once again."

He rolled his eyes. "Any of them get inside, corporal?"

"No, civvies are safe and no casaulties. Scans aren't picking up any more signatures in area, come on down."

He slung the black widow on his back holster as he climbed down the yellow latticework. "Have Torch take a unit into those apartment buildings I talked about earlier, we need to get a comms post set up, find a way out of this mess and to Aralakh company."

"Gotcha' Sir." Garrus chuckled as he heard the human soldier mutter to himself. "Talking to a Geth...didn't sign up for that."

"Heard that, Lions."

"Not really caring Sir. Out."

Garrus would have shrugged, but doing that while climbing down a 50 metre tall pylong was never a good idea, he knew, he saw it happen to a recruit on Palaven one time. Despite telling himself he wouldn't, he couldn't help but look out at the surrounding devastation. Mechanical noises, and sentient cries and screams filled the air alongside the melodic sounds of gunfire and explosions. Punctuating the chaotic symphony of war was a terrible synthetic _growl_ that sounded every five seconds. Like clockwork practically. The Reapers still had the edge in this fight, and they were barely holding against them.

Garrus sighed as his mind immediately swung back to Palaven. The ruined spires of Cipritine. The once awe-inspiring docks and berths of the _Tullius Arsenal_, which once gently orbited Delphae, the homeworld's largest moon after Menae. The family apartment at...damn it.

His thoughts turned to his family, how his sister thought of him...wrongly- as a damn hero. He had certainly never felt that way. That was Shepard's business, not his.

He growled as his thoughts threatened to take hold of him. He dispelled them, focusing on that slippery yellow part that got him on the way up instead.

With a grunt he landed on the walkway with a clang, walking the 20 metre distance to the hatch set in the dome's roof. Not bothering with a slow climb down, he gripped the rails of the ladder with his talons, and slid down its whole length.

The concrete gave him good purchase as he hit the bottom. He opened the door to the refugee camp and headed inside.

Crying children, wheezing patients, and fearful whispers pervaded the air of the smoky and dimly lit room. A maze of bunks choked the majority of the floor of the massive space, with the area's closest to the walls of the building curtained off from the rest of the open space. Soldiers and machines were scattered all over the place; setting up ammo dumps, delivering rations and supplies, tending to the wounded- non military as well as military-, and generally helping out wherever they can. Whatever someone elses rationalization would be for it; either doing it naturally or having nothing else to do- Garrus liked his personal theory the best.

They were keeping busy to stop from breaking down. He felt as if he was past that now, after all of the horrors the galaxy had thrown at him and everyone he knew during the last three years he should have been...hardened, against that sort of thing.

Heh, guess not.

A woman, unadultarated fear in her almond eyes came up to him, the flood light at the end of the narrow path put her red hair on fire. He glanced down, noticing a small freckle faced boy clasping tightly onto her leg, looking up at him with sunken, ill eyes.

"Excuse me sir, but do you know when the rations will come again?"

Garrus held up his hands. Making a open expression. "Uh- just Garrus will do."

"Alright...Garrus. Do you know when the medical rations will come around again? There are a lot of sick people where we're sleeping, I think they're getting the nan-pox." She rubbed the head of the little boy. "I think my son may have it too.

"I'm sorry ma'am- Nanpox?" He was genuinely confused by the strange word, his translator microbes barely managing to put it into a word he understood.

"Oh- well ever since those monsters have landed, a strange virus has been going around. With anyone infected ending up as-" she held back a choked sob. "-some kind of black...paste."

Garrus resisted the urge to blanch. Had to look proffessional. "I'm heading to the command room now, but the clinic's on my way through. I'll check it out and send the news to you."

She nodded. "I-if you cou-"

He smiled, his cheek plates widening. "I'll try to make them come by quicker."

She walked off, with her son in tow as she talked silently to him, stroking his hair every so often.

Garrus sighed as he recalled how he got into this situation.

It was simple really. Shepard was gone, and he was pissed off. He knew it was his fault, he let Shepard get too far ahead, and when Harbinger fired...he was thrown back at least twenty metres, slamming straight into a petrified stump of a tree. Blacked out for about 12 hours, by the spirits, nothing had found him. He set about looking for his friends body among the dead, already deadened to the world, when after combing the entire area, realized that his corpse wasn't there. He took whatever hope he could get, and clinged onto it for all of hells worth. He left the area, heading towards the nearest Reaper he could see. A plan in mind about how he was going to tear them a new one.

His rifle let him snipe at a distance, and he found enough clips to wage a month long war against the Reaper forces. He gunned down patrol after patrol, cut the throats of Marauder captains, impaled Banshee's on the exposed rebar of dead buildings; collapsed entire buildings on Brutes. Those twenty four hours were the longest he had ever experienced.

But-eventually- he got sloppy, found himself backed into a corner by a full platoon of Reapers, backed up by a destroyer. Took out as many as he could with the rifle, eventually having to use his knife as they got closer and closer. Running out of options he was about to spring a final trap, a belt full of Elcor incendiary tank rounds he found while on his crusade. Then he heard the death screams of machine hybrids, and the wails of the destroyer. Intermixed with those, were the sound of a once chilling but now welcome mechanical clicking.

The squad of Geth Primes had smashed through the platoon's rear line, and had taken down the Destroyer using explosives and the hacking capabilities of a fully sentient synthetic consensus.

Wasn't the first or last time a Geth platform would save Garrus.

He walked on. Gently nudging a few despondent Asari and Salarians aside as a thick metal door came into view, flanked by heavily armoured Alliance soldiers.

He saluted them as he entered, them returning the favor. He took the grated staircase two steps at a time, all the way to the top. The doors at the top slid open for him.

The ceiling was packed with screens, displaying readouts and camera feeds from the outside, the unfinished concrete floor was weighed down by a maze of tables and consoles, surrounding the focal point of the room.

A large rectangular space in middle held a massive square table, adorned with wires snaking over it, connecting into a holomonitor that displayed a revolving view of the surrounding district. The see through blocks of light were broken, emulating the situation of the city outside. Scattered throughout the display were clusters of blue dots, most of them surrounded by either the massive insectoid shape of a Reaper destroyer or dreadnought, or the infinitely greater masses of their foot soldiers.

A barrel chested human, with cold grey eyes and even colder black hair with streaks of silvery grey, glanced at Garrus as he examined the hologram.

"Vakarian."

Garrus straightened on instinct, snapping off a quick salute. "Sir."

"What's the count this time?"

"Five cannibal squads,four Banshees, three brutes, and a dozen human husks. And a unfortunate red bus."

The stout man barely raised a eyebrow. "Hated those anyway. Any more incoming?"

"We shouldn't have anything large scale hitting us tonight, some of the Primes are heading out past the perimeter tonight, they'll report in hourly."

"I never expected to have a Geth by my side, rather then staring down my rifle."

"Me neither sir."

"Vakarian-Specialist. Kolfson-General."

Both of them turned around, craning their necks to look at the massive platform. It looked down at them, three orange points of light registering them. The cold fluro lights gleamed off of its jet black armor. A single orange stripe ran down its right arm, parting the black in two as it ended before a black hand, with three digits to it.

"Status report Torch."

"Old-Machine forces have dispersed from our immediate area. Geth platforms are taking up positions of strategic superiority in the main approach to this building. They will be setting up quantum entanglement recievers to better facilitate communications with allied forces across London."

"Nothing will get through?"

"Unlikely. Any forces that breach will be halted by the efforts of Vakarian-Specialist and his teams."

"Good job. Anything to add Vakarian?"

The general and the Geth prime looked at him.

Garrus cleared his throat as quietly as he could. "Not much sir. Enemy forces have seemed to have stopped their actions completely. Don't know what they have planned."

"Take a team out there tonight, link up with one of the Geth squads, and scout out the Aphrodite Hotel, we need to set up a observation post, get a jump on the enemy before they regroup. Take your best for this one."

"Yes sir." Garrus turned to leave.

"Vakarian?"

"Sir?"

"Get something to eat first. Victus warned me about you."

He shook his head. "Will do sir."

He had to admit, food sounded pretty good right now. Even if all he had the delight to look forward to was nutrient blocks and paste being brought in from the Quarian support teams. Delicious.

He left the constantly working occupants of the command center, being followed by Torch as he made his way down the stairs.

The sound of ceramic plated feet on the metal steps behind him punctuated his thoughts. Every time there was only walking to be done, he kept rewinding back to that moment. That horrible moment where he lost the commander in Harbinger's beam of energy. The smell of burnt flesh and bone smashed into him head on, as the pressure wave from the strike threw him back into a wall.

Hell. He knew Shepard had been through worse then that, but...

No. He was alive, and he would storm the halls of the spirits themselves to get him out of there.

He was worried about the others as well. Wondering how they were taking this hit as well. A brief moment of uncertainty reared its ugly head as he dwelt upon the fact that he may have to step up as squad leader. Not again. Not after Omega.

Shepard was their leader. End of it.

The anxious sounds of the refugee camp roused him out of those thoughts, as he walked back down the narrow pathway. He stopped suddenly, remembering his promise to the woman and her child.

The clinic smelt of minty medigel and dried blood. He spotted a Asari dressed in a simple white coat over a grey sweater, and headed over to her.

"Doctor Farei?"

The alien woman turned around to face him, looking at him with unusually green eyes, and pale violet hued skin. "Gar - uh, yes specialist?"

She seemed to squeak whenever he was around.

He inclined his head towards a row of covered beds. "How many have we lost?"

Her shoulders seemed to slump as she rubbed her neck. "Too many. I try to help out as best I can - patching up gunshot wounds- stitching deep slashes and gouges - most of the time its the medi gel that saved them, not me." her voice sunk lower as she grew more miserable. "We're running out of that too. We just don't have enough to sustain us any longer."

"What about the nan-pox?"

"I can't do a damn thing about it! It's completely new to me, it's too different to other diseases. Is a member of your squad infected?"

"I - no...its a child."

"Shit..."

She looked away. Deep in thought as he hung his head.

She turned around, bending to slide a cabinet door open. The space within was over flowing with packs of glowing orange gel. She grabbed a few, handing them to Garrus.

"I-" She paused, depositing the packets into Garrus's arms. "Here. The best thing I can recommend is that medi-gel should be rubbed into the infected areas. Make sure to use gloves, or wrap your hands in clothing or towels. Physical contact is how it spreads. Ask the child's carer to bring him to me."

"Thank you Doctor."

"Can you call me Kayra?"

He paused. A moment's hesitation.

"Sure. Thank you Kayra."

He headed over to the mess area, making his way to the counter by threading through sitting and talking soldiers, engineers, and medics of all races. He snagged a few ration packs from the Dextro pile, making sure to leave some of the good ones behind. His arms ladened with food he left the mess area through an elevator set beside the counter. The doors opened onto a enclosed walkway that ran all the way to the command center he was just in. Turning down the opposite direction he found his bunk room, a small utility office that was currently serving as his home away from...the Normandy, which he just realised.

Closing the dark coloured curtains he settled in on the hard matress, trying not to stretch as he went for a rest. Last time he kicked a hole through the wall.

The next two hours were fairly quiet as he brought himself up to date with the rest of the world with his omnitool. Flicking through all news sites and military channels. Fairly morose from all of the depressing reports he decided that it was time to watch at least one episode of his favourite show. Twenty minutes later he closed down the omnitool, throwing the empty food packets into a bin. He always wondered why humans had such a disproportionately high amount of superhero shows than everyone else.

He made his way back to the elevator, passing a arguing human and turian along the way.

He checked his kit as he descended, even knowing that everything would be accounted for.

The doors opened, and he made a beeline for the massive double doors at the far side of the crowded area.

Emerging through the crowd, he walked over to a squad of human soldiers, and another turian. They all turned to him.

"You've all been briefed?"

Everyone nodded.

"Let's go."

The double doors squealed on their rails as they slid apart, giving them a view of the dark shapes of ruined buildings, and the ever present monolithic Reapers looming overhead. They ran out into the night, ready for the hunt.


	3. Chapter 3: Crash

A/N

You may have noticed that my chapters tend to update in chunks, I apologize for this, but I tend to build the story by writing the first 300 words or so of each chapter in word, then uploading it to FF. I just like the interface more when it comes to editing. And I've decided I'm going to shift this chapter to a later point. Once I finish this chapter I'll be working on one that focuses on Shepards squaddies in London.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: Crash<strong>

The Normandy danced through the carnage of war, dodging burning lances of fire, skirting the skin of cruisers and frigates, veering from accelerator trajectories.

It was a dance, and Joker was damned if he was going to come second place. He gritted his teeth as a cloud of red lights loomed in front of them, his green eyes narrowed as he skilfully guided the Normandy through the maelstrom.

He turned to his co-pilot, a grey skinned synthetic platform.

"EDI! How's our barriers!"

It…She, replied in a calm efficient tone. "Thanks to you Jeff, our barriers are still near full capacity. It was a shame that you let that oculus graze us though."

Joker chuckled. "Why did I get the AI that places snark at the top of her priorities?"

EDI glanced at him, her featureless eyes screaming a answer at him.

"Rhetorical. EDI." Joker quickly added.

The Normandy was gracefully efficient as it tore into the swarm, Joker rolled, slipping around another Reaper beam. The frigate headed straight for the center of the swarm, its thanix cannons annihilating swathes of red eyed fighters. The response came with a barrage of needle thin beams of crimson, impacting in quick succession on Normandy's shields, the lasers were stopped dead, absorbed into the field, ironically making the shield stronger with each successive hit. The engines of the Normandy suddenly died out, sending the ship in a forward slide. Two maneuvering thrusters activated with a soft roar, suddenly flipping the ships upwards, its flat nose now pointing straight up. With a scream, the main engines came to life. It rocketed away, the swarm following closely, firing needles of energy after it. The Normandy rolled and banked as it sped through the battle, almost scraping the hull of the Destiny Ascension as it lead the swarm to its doom. Joker's hands flew furiously as he handled the controls, choreographing a graceful dance of poise and control. A massive Reaper loomed ahead of the ship, its tentacles splayed outwards as their tips burned with a crackling red energy, flinging gouts of deadly light at anything nearby. Off the port side a Dreadnought was firing its main cannon directly at the Reapers underbelly, the roar of its cannon shaking the Normandy slightly. Joker pulled a U-turn, presenting the Normandy's ass to the Reaper, speeding furiously past a thicket of cruisers protecting a alliance carrier.

The ships around the Normandy were replaced with nothingness as it cleared the main battlezone. The ship rocketed towards a massive debris field, broken and savaged ships floating in its midst. As the Normandy's nose reached the edge of the field, Joker keyed the comm, sending a wide band message.

CORSAIRS GO.

A mass of lights flashed on amidst the wreckaged, as a squadron of white and yellow fighters rose out of its depths like a vengeful wraith. One by one their wings folded out, revealing a overwhelming array of missile tubes, kinetic cannons and GARDIAN lasers. As one they sped towards the Normandy, suddenly splitting off in three directions as they neared the ship. The Normandy flew through the gap they left.

The fighters fired, pouring a massive volume of ammunition into the oculus swarm. Several of the sphere shaped drones tore apart instantly, pitifully firing their tiny lasers into the fighters haphazardly. The Corsairs flew away from the newly made debris field, settling into formation alongside Normandy. Joker heard a chime, he pressed a blinking orange block on his interface.

"Nice job Lieutenant, those things are scrap metal now."

"Just another day for me, Hotshot."

He heard a laugh on the other side.

"Ferrying the commander around does get interesting doesn't it?"

Joker rolled his eyes. "Does it ever? I had to pick him up from a erupting volcano you know!"

Joker swore Hotshot was rolling _his _eyes now. "You aren't going to let him forget that are you?"

The pilot smiled. "And deprive myself of a _valuable _blackmail source? Never."

"You're a master at it man, back at the academy you pretty much had something on everyone in the class!"

"No one ever thinks that its the cripple."

"Diabolical!"

Joker laughed, prompting EDI to tilt her head slightly at him. Their talk was interrupted by another chime, Joker rolled his eyes and activated it.

Admiral Hackett was on screen.

"Joker, Captain Miller, good work on those drones, you've made some breathing room for the _Ascension _and the_ Indomitable_ to do their work."

"Nothing to it, Admiral."

Joker was surprised about what happened next.

"Fuck."

Joker couldn't believe his ears. Admiral Hackett. The calmest guy he knew, apart from Shepard, just _swore_? Something just went horribly wrong.

"Joker! We have a new development, Harbinger is one its way to the Citadel and the Catalyst, its smashing through the fleets stationed there and we can't spare any of the forces here. I want you and Corsair to head over there and neutralize the threat. Closest support I can get for you is the _Orizaba_ and her battlegroup."

"Yessir, Joker out." he switched off Hacketts channel.

"Hotshot, hear that? We've got a Reaper's ass to kick!"

"Harbinger huh? I heard he's the oldest and strongest of them all."

"He has a knack for running his mouth off, particurlarly when Shepard's involved."

"Better get to it then, we'll fly cover around the Normandy, once Harbinger's in range, we'll break off and destroy his weapon arrays. Then you go in for the kill." the comm went silent.

The corsairs pulled back from the Normandy, trailing three hundred metres shy of it, the group split into three to cover her flanks. The Reaper they swung past before loomed ahead of them, Joker guided the Normandy below its plane, like a sub diving during a 21st century naval battle. Compared to the emissions the ships above it were giving, the Normandy was practically invisible, as it stealthed towards the machine. Two hundred metres off from it, he swung upwards, pointing the bow straight at the Reaper's underbelly. With a few gestures he readied the Thanix cannons. Two panels on on the ships nose slid outwards and forwards, revealing the black cannons affixed to them. A blue glow collected in their barrels as Joker readied them. A beep confirmed that they were armed, a second beep had confirmed target lock. Joker pressed down on a spherical button.

With a whine the Normandy unleashed its fury, two globs of molten metal flung themselves from the barrels, dead on target towards the Reaper. With a small crunch they tore through its armour, continuing on their path as their wake left violent explosions and a mortally wounded Reaper. The Normandy glided past its dying hulk, Joker couldn't resist sending the machine off with a one finger salute.

Joker laughed to himself. "Goodnight, you bastard!".

EDI gave him a worried look. "I worry about you, Jeff."

"What? Can't I celebrate?"

Once again she took him literally. "Getting intoxicated while flying the Normandy is inadvised, Jeff."

"Killjoy."

With a sigh he keyed the commlink again, searching for the _Orizaba_'s frequency.

"Normandy to Killimanjaro, Normandy to Orizaba. This is SSV Normandy."

A soft, scared voice answered back. "Thi-this is Orizaba, Nor-normandy."

Ah great. A kid. "Requesting permission to speak to Rear Admiral Shepard."

"O-okay." He could practically hear the kid wetting herself as silence dawned on the line. He turned the Normandy towards the Citadel, setting off for it at full burn. As he guided the ship along the edges of the massive engagement, he heard a woman's voice. Slightly annoyed too.

"Yes Joker, what is it!"

"Admiral, Normandy's been assigned to hunt down Harbinger, its last known position was near your battlegroup, can you confirm?"

"Of course I can confirm! I'm using everything we've got to distract him! If that's not enough, I've got a whole swarm of fighters 'bout to ruin my day here!"

Joker winced. "Roger ma'am, the corsairs have been assigned to fly cover, transferring them to you."

He heard a sigh on the other end. "Good hunting, Normandy", she paused. "Jeff...how's my boy doing?"

Shit. "Commander's groundside, with Anderson and his forces."

He really did hate lying through his teeth.

The admiral hesitated. "Alright. Shepard out."

He let go of the breath he was holding in.

EDI glanced at him. "You lied to the Admiral."

"Yeah, EDI. I did."

"Why?"

"Because that sounds much better then saying that a Reaper shot at him and he hasn't been seen since!"

The cockpit was silent.

"I see." she turned back to her station, eyes focused on the battle ahead.

"EDI. I'm sorry, its just-" he shut his eyes for a second. "Its difficult. We're up here, while him, Garrus and Javik are fighting on _foot _against them."

"Jeff. Being up here would be less safe then being down there."

"I know, I realise that. It just pisses me off that we can't get to the-"

"Jeff! Harbinger is within range."

He shut his mouth.

His hands tightened instinctively around the controls. Flying against the strongest Reaper tends to do that.

"_Orizaba _to _Normandy_, we've recieved the Corsairs and are moving into position against Harbinger."

"Admiral, what's the plan?"

"_Orizaba _will provide a cover barrage for the Normandy, it'll give you the chance to slip behind the son of a bitch and strike from the rear. I suggest you act quickly, we won't last long. Shepard out."

The _Orizaba's _low profile lumbered towards the Reaper, main guns powering up as her mass effect fields went to work. The picket of cruisers around her followed suite, taking up positions above and below where she was most vulnerable. The two carriers assigned to her battlegroup, the _Einstein _and Hawking, peeled back a ways, trailing behind the sleek dreadnought as all over their hull, bays began to disgorge interceptors and bombers in increments of five. The tiny one man ships broke off from the advance, using a flanking effect against Harbinger.

Joker knew that sound doesn't travel in space. But he swore that as they jetted towards the synthetic monstrosity, he could hear a keening noise that set his teeth on edge.

The giant saw them.

It turned its massive bulk towards them, as a swarm of Oculi were released from a hangar door on its 'belly'. The Corsairs responded accordingly, half of their number splitting off to engage the spherical drones. Harbinger fired, a crimson ribbon of energy lanced through a unlucky cruiser, gutting its innards. The cruiser spiralled into a out of control spin, fires breaking out all across its surface, with a final groan it tore itself apart, the once proud alliance ship broken and dead.

"-nd turn it off! We don't need to hear them. Kingston, full power, tungsten slug, lets distract the bastard!"

As the Normandy flew true towards the underside of Harbinger, the _Orizaba _above them shuddered as its coaxial gun fired. A white hot slug propelled at 4025 km/s tore through empty space, travelling the 20,000 km expanse between the flagship of the fifth fleet and Harbinger in just over 5 seconds flat. The slug flattened instantly as it hit the ultra-tough carapace of the sentient machine, barely putting a dent in its armour. Massive ribbons of discharge danced along Harbinger's length as its engines propelled the behemoth forward, its frontal armour easily soaking up round after round of kinetic cannons and accelerators. As it drew closer to the _Orizaba, _Shepard scowled, and gestured for a comm link to the _Normandy_.

"Joker! We got its attention, make it quick or we'll end up as a proud stain on one of its claws!"

"Roger! Moving in now!"

Shepard switched channels from the _Normandy_ to the Corsairs.

"Miller! Wave off and engage those drones! Make sure they don't break through to the Einstein and Hawking!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

The Corsairs broke off from their charge, splitting into two groups, the first group, made up of the fastest flyers in the squadron, would bolster the interceptors and fighters engaging the swarm, while the second group, comprised of the Corsair's gunships and bomber wings, would attack Harbinger's left flank, distracting the machine.

"Cosmo! Commit hard burn to Harbinger's left flank! Hit it with everything you've got, we have to draw attention away from Normandy and Orizaba!"

"Gotcha Hot Shot. Make sure not to let any of the evil eyes shoot us in the ass will ya?"

"I might let one or two through."

"Ah, you think you're a funny bastard don't ya?"

"A girl back on the 'beast' agrees."

"Shut up. Cosmo out."

Miller thrusted forwards, guiding his interceptor, proudly adorned with a jolly roger flag, towards the mass of red lights ten thousand kilometres away. He checked his kinetic impactors, jettisoning used ammo blocks to decrease weight load, giving him that little edge in speed. Two thousand kilometres off and his targeting kicked in, highlighting a group of drones in the center of the swarm in red flags. His computer confirmed target lock, and he fired. A launch tube on the underside of his chassis flared as a javelin torpedo was launched. The blue tipped missile's passage was near silent, its on-board computer calculating the most efficient trajectory to its target. A barrage of lasers tried to stop its passage, but to no avail as its warhead detonated. A black and purple vortex of dark matter was birthed into existence, dragging in most of the drones nearby. Some of the drones weakly resisted the extreme force, only to be crushed by the massive pressure exerted on their frames. The singularity collapsed unto itself, wiping out a whole third of the swarm, giving the alliance fighters an opening to press the advantage. Several of the remaining drones were wreathed in discharge, their barriers completely overwhelmed from the forces they were caught in.

Miller sent out a wideband comm to his wings. "All ships, weapons free!"

In his mind, Miller heard the whoops and exclamations of his pilots as they unleashed themselves upon the Reaper machines, tearing into them with kinetic cannons and conventional torpedos. The drone's programming was no match for organic ingenuity, and was outmanoeuvred at every turn by the nimbler Corsairs. One by one, the massive swarm was turned into junk by less than fifty opponents.

"-aw the carnage from here, good job Corsairs, press the attack on the Reaper's right flank, distract while we prep thanix missiles. Shepard out."

Miller turned his gaze to the massive ship looming to his right. He steeled his resolve, thinking of any structural weaknesses he could exploit, to increase the chances that the Corsairs would make it out alive.

"Corsairs! New target, descend on Harbinger's right flank; objective is to disable and damage weapon systems or sensors. Good hunting boys and girls!"

As a single mass they swooped down on Harbinger, kinetic cannons flaring as they unleashed a barrage against its flank. The ultra-dense material that made up its armour seemed to just absorb each shot, Miller cursed.

"Prep missiles! Fire at the power conduits!" he yelled. He banked, arming another javelin missile. Its icon turned green, confirming readiness, and he fired. The missile sped away, destined for a junction of gleaming white circuitry. The missile slammed into the Reaper with incredible force, immediately collapsing into a singularity. The massive gravitational force given off threw off Miller's perceptions, twisting the light around it. The black maw finally collapsed unto itself, revealing a sparking and melted hole punched into the armour. Harbinger flailed, seemingly descending into a slight roll.

"Miller, I don't know what you did man, but keep at it. I'm going in for the kill, keep it occupied. Joker out."

The Normandy rose up gradually as Joker guided it behind Harbinger. Ten thousand kilometres from the dreadnoughts rear he pulled a U turn, flipping the Normandy's nose towards Harbinger. He gunned it, using the same tactic he did with Sovereign. As the Normandy screamed towards the massive ship, he activated her thanix cannons. The indicator bar began to fill with a green light as it gathered mass and energy. The bar turned fully green, blaring the words ARMED at him. He stabbed down on the spherical fire button.

Two ribbons of pale blue light shot out of Normandy's forward batteries. Calibrated to perfection, they spun around each other, forming into a single spike of white explosive force. It was dead on target, heading straight for Harbinger's centre of mass, where its core should be. The Reaper shifted, turning its profile to the side to provide a smaller target, it propelled itself away from the small projectile, resulting in the tips of two of its claws being sheared off.

Joker rolled his eyes, frustrated at the Reaper's maneouver. "That's just not fair! That things core is huge, no wonder it could turn that fast! That's just cheating!"

"Jeff! This isn't the best time!"

"Noted EDI."

He found the _Orizaba's _channel. "Admiral, the bastard dodged it, we're going for another run."

_"Dammit. I'll order another barrage, knock it off balance."_

The Orizaba's main gun fired once more, its package a 20kg slug that flew towards Harbinger. It struck with tremendous force, cracking the Reaper's armour plating on impact, "pissing it off" as the admiral would say. Harbinger seemed to take the bait once more, angling towards the alliance dreadnought, its claws outstretched and bristling with crimson discharge. It was going for a killshot.

"_Joker! Take the shot!"_

Joker gritted his teeth as he pulled the Normandy into a U turn, resisting the G forces that bled through the mass effect field. He brought the Normandy onto a straight course to Harbinger, directly behind where its engines should logically be. He had to catch up from a twenty thousand kilometre gap. He gunned it, the Normandy's thrusters glowing a brilliant blue as they worked to propel the ship forward at blisteringly fast speed. In less than ten seconds, they had cleared half of the gap between them and the dreadnought.

Five seconds later, Joker switched the Thanix cannons online again, lining up a shot on Harbinger's rear.

A chime confirmed target lock. With no hesitation he jabbed the fire button.

"Shove this up your a-"

His one line was cut short as the noise from the cannon's firing drowned him out.

Out in the cold depths of space, two brilliant blobs of molten metal coalesced into one whole, heading directly for the Reaper in front of them. As Harbinger loosed a short beam of energy at the _Orizaba_, the deadly projectile slammed into it. The machine raged as its barrage was cut short, and its lights began to dim and flicker. The impact sent it spinning, resulting in it facing a small white shape that barrelled towards it. But the Reaper wasn't dead yet, one of its claws released its payload, firing a beam of burning energy straight at the Normandy. Joker cursed and banked her, but the lance of light was too quick, and it tore through the ships port engine block. The sudden loss of mass was too much for the Normandy, she went into a spin, hurtling towards the planet at a blistering speed.

"_Shit, call the S&R Units! Get to them as soon as possible!" _

* * *

><p>She lost her footing slightly, as the Normandy spun out of control. She flung one of her arms out instinctively, managing to get a firm purchase on a wall railing with her three fingers. Keeping a tentative hold on the rail, she guided herself back to her console. She called out to the two other engineers with her.<p>

"Ken! Our heatsinks are being shaken apart! Bolster the containment field."

"I'm doing it Tali, just hold on!"

"Stop whining, Kenneth!"

The brown haired engineer grumbled, muttering something under his breath as he worked. "Women telling me what to do..."

The engineer next to him gave him a cold glare with her bright green eyes. "I heard that Kenneth."

"Gabby! Focus the cyclonic capacitors on the forward and ventral sections."

"Rerouting. Done Tali."

Another blast shook the Normandy, sending Kenneth flying back from his console, he hit the wall with a crunch, yelling in pain as his shoulder decided to dislocate.

"Argh! Dammit!"

Tali glanced over. "Gabby, take him to the infirmary, check on Adams. I'll be fine down here. No questions, do it."

"Uh- yes Tali. Be careful."

Gabby looped Kenneth's arm around her, supporting him as they left for the elevator. A panel near Tali's head exploded, fire visible in the space behind it. Tali ducked, reaching for the small fire extinguisher attached to the console. She struggled a bit when wrapping her hand around the handle, but quickly got it ready. With a flick of a switch, white foam sprayed out of the nozzle, suffocating the flames and smothering them. A miniature blue haze kicked in, taking the place of the broken wall panel.

Joker's voice blared out of a speaker. "Hold on everyone, we're coming in fast!"

Tali swore inwardly. She brushed a finger on the intercom. "Joker! I can right the field; it'll give you a little more control over the ship!"

"Anything to help us live longer!"

Tali released the intercom; she kept her hand on a safety rail as she made her way to the drive core chamber. In the middle of the massive hexagonally shaped room, was a orb suspended in the air, holes were punctured all over it, letting blue light through. She reached the main console and swept her arm over it. Her omnitool immediately sprang to life, and started communicating with the interface. Barely keeping an eye on the glowing apparatus her other hand flew over the console, checking readouts, tweaking settings, keeping the systems in a fine balance as to give the ship as much as she could.

With a barely contained grunt of frustration she continued sorting through the mess of a interface, until finally she reached the M field controls. The interface showed two parallel blocks of colour, normally they would both be a calm green, but now the one on the right was a mix of bright red and dull green.

"Bosh'tet!" She made a slicing gesture with her index finger, prompting the interface to focus on the right hand bar. A dizzying array of sliders greeted her, she ignored most of them, instead focusing on the top one. With a practiced dexterity, she slid her finger to the right, the slider mimicked her movement, filling up 2/3 of its space with a white line.

Satisfied she flicked back to the field interface. The right hand bar had changed from a mix of crimson and green, to a dull uniform green. The left hand bar had dulled to the same tone as well.

She punched the intercom button next to her. "Joker, I've balanced the shields, how much time until impact?"

"About 10 minutes. Might want head up to the crew deck Tali, shielding is strongest there."

"Will do. Tali out." The ship rocked, making her stumble as the floor suddenly rotated a little. She made her way back to the engineering consoles with no trouble, until the she reached the sub level stairs. The wall and roof broke apart, sending tons of wiring and support beams crashing to the floor, blocking her access to the elevator. She cursed, and tried to find a way through the obstruction, to no avail.

She looked around desperately, and squeezed past a jagged piece of metal, making sure not to let it puncture her suit. She went down the stairs, into the sub level of engineering. She leant over the table, gripping the edges of a wall panel. She ripped it off, revealing a tunnel. She crept into it, heading straight for the ladder at the end of the small passage way. Being claustrophobic, she tried not to focus on how small the space was, instead she laughed. Thinking for the hundredth time what kind of Quarian was claustrophobic. It's all Shepard's fault; he keeps sending me into vents over and over. Keelah….she hoped he was okay. The last time she saw him was at Hammer's FOB. She shook herself. Damn it! Can't think about that right now, I have a job to do!

The Normandy shook horribly, giving her the impression that the field was about to weaken, she looked back towards the sub engineering area, which was now completely obscured by a wall of fire. Smoke began to fill her tunnel. With one hand pulling her up the ladder, she tightened the environmental seals on her suit, a measure that would prevent smoke inhalation through her filter and breathing pores in the fabric. She continued climbing, passing sparking wires and severed cables. An automated voice sounded in the small shaft.

"WARNING. SHAFT 5-3 WILL BE COMPARMENTALIZED, ALL PERSONNEL PLEASE VACATE IMMEDIATELY. THANK YOU."

A shimmering blue field came into existence at the bottom of the shaft, and slowly rose up behind her. She picked up the pace, focusing on a small alcove ten metres above her. The field began to pick up speed, now three metres under her feet. Her breathing began to quicken, and her thoughts turning to the unpleasant prospect of dying in the bowels of the Normandy. She willed herself to climb faster, two metres away from the alcove she let go of the ladder, flinging herself onto the protruding lip of metal. She didn't stop, and crawled as fast as she could into the tunnel, trying to reach the console that would stop the field from growing.

Her hands flew as she worked the console. Five seconds later a beep sounded, and the field stopped just under the alcove. With a sigh she rocked back on her feet, taking a moment to rest her tired body. At a measured pace she crawled onwards, stopping at a small sliding door at the end of the tunnel. She touched the glowing release button, and the door slid upwards, rewarding her with a view of the central crew deck, with the entrance to the medical bay visible in the right of her vision. With the grace of a Varren, she tumbled out onto the floor, well and truly glad to be out of that death-trap.

A light blue hand lowered itself towards her.

"Tali, need a hand?" Liara looked down at her, a concerned look itself in her light blue eyes. Tali nodded wearily, the asari bent forward, holding Tali's three fingers in a firm grip.

"Thanks Liara. Where's Kenneth?"

"In the medical bay with Dr. Chakwas, I just finished assessing his injuries."

She stood up shakily. "You are pretty good at being a medic, thinking of switching businesses?"

Liara's smirk told all. "I think I'm happy where I am. Come on, I'll take you to Kenneth."

She guided Tali's arm around her, resting her hand on her shoulder. She walked carefully, so as not to endanger Tali in any way. They passed the wall separating the main area from the corridor in front of the elevator. Most of the crew were gathered around the central table, apart from Joker and EDI. And….the team on Earth. She chose not to dwell on that topic, focusing on getting Tali to the med bay. With a hiss the door opened, to Kenneth being attacked by Chakwas.

"Doc, can ye' stop proddin' me? It's just a shoulder!"

"Stop moving, Engineer Donnelly. Then we'll talk about my 'prodding'."

"Ken, just do what she says."

"Fine."

He ceased his struggle, and laid down on the metal hospital bed. Tali shook her head at him. Gabby spotted her by the door.

"Tali! The roof of the stairwell collapsed behind us! Are you alright?"

"I don't really want to make a habit of crawling through the emergency tunnels. I'm okay."

The loudspeaker was on again.

"5 minutes everyone! Hold on to something!"

Chakwas called Gabby over. "Gabby, help him to a harness." The brunette nodded and walked over the Kenneth's side. Kenneth grumbled as she guided him to a two seater harness. Tali glanced towards the massive windows that made up part of the med bays walls. The crew was strapped into the walls, with roll cages obscuring their chests and mass effect fields buzzing around them. She noticed that James was securing everyone's harnesses. Its then that he realized that there wasn't one left for him. Tali banged on the window, and beckoned for him to come through the door.

"Sparks?"

"There's a harness on that wall over there." She pointed behind her, at a table near the entrance to the AI core. He nodded, the ship rocked horribly and the tearing of metal and ceramic filled the air.

Tali lost her footing, crashing into James and sending them both crashing to the floor in a heap; she untangled herself from him, and pulled him up. James stumbled slightly as he made his way to the harness at the end of the room.

"2 minutes!" Joker's voice on the intercom now had a slightly panicked edge to it.

She found an empty harness next to the lab bench, and strapped herself in.

* * *

><p>Samantha yelped as a console near her burst into flames, stumbling her as she ran down the length of the corridor to the cockpit. She slammed her fist into the door's release, prompting it to open. She ran in, closing the door again. She braced herself against a bulkhead.<p>

"Distress signal away, hopefully the area we land in is close to allied lines."

"Thanks Sam. EDI! Did Tali's trick work?"

"Yes. Instead of the ship coming apart before landing, it will come apart after landing."

"Comforting. What about your systems? Are they at risk of damage?" his question took on a concerned tone.

"I'll be fine Jeff. I have been crashed before."

"That wasn't my fault! Blame the commander when we see him!"

A silence descended over the cockpit, the only sound was the whine of the klaxons and the hydraulic hiss of the door.

Samantha spoke up first. "Do you think he's still down there?"

"I don't know. Last I heard was that he made it to the Citadel. After that, not a peep."

"That's reassuring."

Without looking back from her console, Joker's co-pilot responded. "Specialist Traynor. Shepard will be fine."

Samantha laughed bitterly. "I have to say EDI, thats a bold statement to make without any data to back it up."

"It is something I learned from the commander. I believe its called hope."

Samantha sighed. "S-sorry EDI, I'm just scared."

"Sam! Might want to strap in!"

She clambered into the harness next to her, and pulled down the sturdy roll cage into position. She punched the button next to her, a hazy blue field surrounded her, a 'crash bubble'.

"Ready Joker!"

"EDI! You in as well?"

"I am Jeff."

"Joker, do you have a fix on our crash site?"

"London."

Silence fell over them as they prepared for the worst, they could hear the wind outside as the Normandy dived down through the air, its aft section was ablaze, and its portside engines were ripped apart.

The little ship plunged nosefirst towards the ruins of London, it skimmed over the top of a cluster of apartments, losing a sensor cluster in the process. Big Ben loomed ahead of the wrecked frigate. Suddenly a thruster flared to life on its port side, shunting it to the left of the massive clock tower. It didn't clear it, and its portside engine block was completely sheared off, putting the Normandy into a tumble. It slammed through an apartment building, covered in ash and dust as it finally came to rest on a massive lane of dead grass, carving a massive furrow through it. Finally it came to a rest, a smoking and wrecked hulk.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**So the Normandy's crashed, and somehow Tali, Liara, and James are back on there, without an explanation?**

**Do not worry, my next chapter will be set before this one and after CH 1.**

**For now, please review or flame as much as you want!**

**Seriously, reviews help me make new ideas.****Thanks guys!**


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